Maybe Sunshine, Mostly Rain
by Merida's Hair
Summary: "The memorial wall had two new additions now. Two additions who should be sitting with them, maybe playing poker with the abandoned cards on the table. They both had excellent poker faces, if one more than the other." The crew of the Normandy tries to make sense of final events of the war. Post Destroy ending. Ensemble fic. Femshep/Liara, Joker/EDI
1. Chapter 1

The mess hall was deathly silent.

Ashley was originally completely freaked out by the idea of an AI watching her every move. She'd be there _physically _at the worst times, never breathing, calculating her with every flash of her metallic eyes. But it hadn't take it long to figure out that EDI was a lot more than an AI. Especially when _she_ had been the one to bring her headache medicine and a cup of coffee after her _fun_ night of drinking with Vega. Throughout her time on the _Normandy_, EDI had become increasingly more personable? No…relatable? No. _Human._ Ashley could only imagine the look on her own face the first time she heard EDI tell a joke, or the strange look of concern on her face when she found Ashley sprawled out on the floor.

The silence prevailed. And everyone was listening to it.

Strangely enough, Tali broke it. She hadn't said a word since the _Normandy_ went into hyper-drive through Uncharted Space. Her voice was hoarse. _From not using it or crying? _Ashley stared at her now cold coffee as she talked.

"What…should we do now? What is there to do?"

Vega stared at some invisible spot on the table, his mouth slightly pursed.

"You heard the Doc, we've gotta wait for Blue to wake up."

"After all that, we don't even _know_ if the Crucible worked!"

"Do any of _you_ see huge reaper claws?"

Garrus twitched his mandibles. "If there was anyone who'd figure it out, everyone here knows just exactly who it would be.

Traynor's eyes glazed over a bit. "Commander Skye Shepard, Champion of the Impossible it would seem…"

_This wasn't enough!_, Ashley wanted to yell. They weren't going to accomplish anything sitting and moping around the mess hall, not talking, talking too much about things already known, withdrawn in their own thoughts and successes or failures. But that would be hypocrisy on her own part, so she kept staring at her coffee.

The memorial wall had two new additions now. Two additions who should be sitting with _them_, maybe playing poker with the abandoned cards on the table. They both had excellent poker faces, if one more than the other."

The entire ceremony had taken a heavy toll on the remaining crew, leaving them with dejected and wandering spirits. _What was that saying? 'Cut off the head, and the body will die?' Yeah..._

Lost in her own thoughts, her own analysis of the night and day's events, she hardly noticed the angered and tense chatter that had stared to resume. Something had gone _wrong._ Horribly wrong. She couldn't even tell, not with everything that could go wrong, if it was a better kind of wrong. She could still hear the shrieks of banshees, Wrex's bellowing orders to his clan, and she could still see Shepard's silhouette; ceramic plating and bun and all, staring resolutely at the giant Reaper claw destroying their home world.

If she were an artist or a poet, she could make a damn fortune.

She heard the crackle of a recording rev up, and as a familiar voice filled the echoes of the near empty frigate, she found herself drawn back in.

_"This is Shepard to Normandy. Shepard to Normandy. Normandy, do you copy? …..I'm going to activate it, I don't know what's going to happen….feed…..bit fuzzy….get them the hell out of there Joker! The Reapers are going down, and I don''t want you going down with it….Shepard to Normandy…please…tell Liara I love her….didn't mean for any of this to…you guys…..my family….you safe-"_

The feed cut off. White noise consumed the rest of the tape. Garrus gently pressed the button, shutting the white noise off and letting the silence consume them all.

* * *

_Well. Would you look at that._

Chakwas couldn't suppress the burst of glee and pang in her heart as she read over the test results. Clear as day, dark as night, Shepard was still going to live on now through her tiny blue daughter. Liara looked peaceful, the dejected despair on her face when James had dropped her off in the Med Bay vanished in rest. Although Chakwas didn't miss the pure hope in Liara's eyes just before Commander Shepard's nameplate was put officially on the memorial board.

Chakwas's eyes crinkled in sympathy. She gently patted the young asari's hand. _You'll see her again, child._

A crash and a muttering of _shit_ sounded from the AI core room. With weariness, Chakwas left Liara to her rest and checked up on her other patient, sent by Lieutenant-Commander Williams with strict instructions to him of _sleep._ That hadn't lasted long, for painfully obvious reasons. He wouldn't give up, not on her.

Joker was crouched in the ruined AI Core, his hands furiously trying to make sense of the tangled wires. His face was contorted in pain, as she noticed the awkward placement of his legs. _He would break a bone if she didn't intervene now._

"Jeff…" He made no response. Just yelled _SHIT_ a lot more loudly than before as he burned his finger. He continued to work, connecting wires, attempting to connect the networks to his omnitool. All fruitless as the room remained hauntingly silent.

"Jeff." She said more firmly.

He turned around. _"What."_

"Jeff…there's nothing more you can do. She's…." She sighed, not wanting to bring her non-temporary absence if she could help it. "It's time to take your pills."

Anger took over the look of pain as he nearly snarled.

"What? So I should just _let_ her die? I shouldn't do anything to bring her back?."

She considered her next words carefully.

"You're going to drive yourself insane if you keep doing this to yourself. It's not what she would have wanted."

He turned sharply to her, wires bunched in his hands.

"How the hell do you know what she would have wanted?" His eyes were as haunted as the room, but a strange smile suddenly broke across his face. "Actually she'd probably something along the lines of 'Jeff, I'd highly recommend you stop attempting to repair those wires until you are emotionally stable enough as to not cause damage your hands because you and I will need them for further use.' And then she'd say 'That was a joke,' because that's something EDI would do, because she's freaking _EDI_…and…." He trailed off as the memory seemed leave his whole body. He dropped the wires and slumped against the consoles.

Chakwas remained perfectly still.

_"Shit….shit…shit…_I never told her. What, was I self conscious about it? Who the hell knows now." He glanced at the small table where Legion once lay, now gently holding Eva Corre -no, EDI's- body.

He was being cryptic, but Chakwas had been an Alliance doctor for many years before this damned war. She had never seen atrocities and the horrors seen in this one, but she knew exactly what he meant.

"She _knew_ Jeff. Believe me, she knew."

He glanced up at the ceiling, his hands connecting across his stomach as that smile appeared once more.

"She used to send me song files when she couldn't properly express what she was feeling or something like that….sometimes it would be soulful, sometimes funny…once she sent me 'Do You Wanna Touch Me?' and I nearly fell over in my chair." He smirked before taking a heavy breath.

"…Anyway….on the morning of, you know the Final Push, Let's Take Back Earth From Those Fuckers Day….she sent me 'You Are My Sunshine."

He paused, lost in the memory.

Chakwas's eyes widened ever so slightly and her heart did a pang and a twinge again. It was doing that a long recently, and she suspected it wouldn't cease for a long while.

"Before that day I hadn't cried since the first _Normandy_ blew up with Shepard along with it." He admitted bitterly.

She waited another moment before grabbing his cane and offering her hand for assistance. He took it with a sigh of his own, the last of the wires falling off his lap. It was resignation. It was necessary for moving on, but the pain of it was even festering in Chakwas's own heart.

She hadn't like the AI as much as Joker himself didn't like her back on the Collecters mission. EDI had grown on her. She could truly call the AI of the ship she served on; friend.

Joker went over to one of the beds, dropping his cane beside it. Chakwas handed him his pills, made sure he actually drank them, and then told him point blank that she would tell on him to Ashley if he didn't sleep. He said "Yes, Ma'am!" before mock saluting and falling emotionally exhausted and dejected and into the scratchy med bay sheets.

With a heavy heart, Chakwas resumed her place at her desk, even though she virtually had nothing to do now besides wait for her patients to wake up.

_We'll make it Shepard. They won't fall apart if I have any say in the matter._

She sighed with that last thought and opened a bottle of Serrice Ice brandy, having saved it for a special occasion. She considered surviving the possible apocalypse of the galaxies something to celebrate. Glancing at the empty chair beside her, where Mordin would mutter in broken sentences about the DNA sequences of asari-krogan children, and Skye Shepard once sat, drunk off her ass and laughing with Chakwas as if they didn't have a galaxy to save for once. Shepard was one of those people who had a smile that could light up her entire face, but otherwise her strong and sharp features spoke of a more harsh disposition that she truly only had when necessary. And towards the end necessary was all she knew. The soldiers had been Chakwas's children for more than twenty years, and one of the best gifts in her career had been when the weary soldier's would realize something to smile about.

Regardless of the fast paced and relentless war, Shepard managed to find that something. Whether it was dancing with Liara when she thought no one was looking, or trying to figure out tech with Tali, or making terrible wise-ass jokes with Garrus, Shepard would hold onto that something. Until Thessia. Until destroying the Reapers became everything she had to be about.

She lifted her glass towards the empty seat as a salute.

_To you, Commander. To you, Mordin Solus. To every soul out there who's lost or has lost_,_ or probably will lose another._

Downing the glass, she reckoned that _celebrate_ wasn't really the right word for this at all.

As she lifted a datapad, perhaps just to give her something read instead of thoughts to dwell on, the intercom in the Med bay began to voice white noise and she lifted her head in confusion. The engineering crew hadn't gotten the intercom systems up yet, had they? Weren't they still working on getting the radio back up?

_You are my sunshine  
__My only sunshine  
You make me happy  
When skies are gray_

A chill raced down Chakwas's spine as she recalled Joker's words. She remained perfectly frozen, staring in shock at the intercom crackling the tune softly. Her patients didn't stir.

_You'll never know dear  
How much I love you  
Please don't take  
My sunshine away_

The tune ended, and the Med bay was as silent as it was before. Chakwas could hear her own breaths, slightly labored and shallow. She waited for something, _anything, _to happen again. She glanced briefly to the AI core room, the red circle indicating it was as locked as it was minutes ago.

"...EDI?" She whispered.

The silence continued. The tension left Chakwas's shoulders and spine and she poured herself another glass of brandy.


	2. You May Say I'm a Dreamer

_Liara honestly didn't know how long she'd been working._

_Her fingers ached, and her back felt stiff as she tried fidgeted to try and remove the kinks. The terminal and screens and Glyph and everything was quiet after a long day, and she was grateful for the peace. She knew that being the Shadow Broker was essential for this war, but also knew that a coffee break was essential for her being the Shadow Broker._

_Coffee was something she had gotten a bit addicted to back on the mission to find Saren. It had been Kaiden who'd risen a brow after she asked what the delicious-smelling aroma was, and it was he who pushed a mug towards her. Kaiden Alenko. One of the first humans she'd ever met, and still one of the kindest. His death had been a harsh one to come to terms with._

_She checked the lock with her omnitool as she exited her room, mind still focussed on getting said coffee, when she heard soft music echoing through the mess hall._

_"I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello, hello hello…"_

_The music appeared to be human, and nothing like any of the current styles she knew of. As curiosity was in her nature, she abandoned her quest for coffee for a moment to follow the trail of sound. She did not have to go far. Liara froze in place as she realized the origin._

_Shepard was standing in front of the memorial wall, eyes focussed on the names in front of her. Her arms were crossed around her body as if to hold herself, and Liara realized then that she was softly singing along with the words. Her expression was one of vulnerability, instead of the agitated expression she seemed to adopt lately. Liara felt a pang of guilt. It had been a while since she and Skye were together alone. The days had become more long, more desperate. Shepard was beckoned and called from all corners of the galaxy, and Liara could feel her exhaustion coming off of her in waves, even if Shepard couldn't see it._

_Shepard closed her eyes then. _

_"Hello sweetheart." She whispered._

_She breathed a sigh of relief and quietly stepped beside Skye's still figure. She felt the slight warmth in her belly whenever Shepard used that term of endearment. She gently took her hand, feeling the tension in the callused fingers. She rubbed her hand, and Shepard gripped it tightly for a moment before slightly releasing her hold. Letting the hand go, she wrapped her arms around Skye's waist, resting her head on her shoulder. A peace was instilled within her, a peace she only got in the presence of her lover._

_She gently rocked Skye back and forth, feeling her completely mold herself, the tension completely leaving her body. The music played on from Shepard's omnitool._

_"..Hello hello…I don't know why you say goodbye-"_

_"I'm sorry that I've been so busy lately." Liara lamented. "I've missed being with you, terribly."_

_"Me too." Shepard murmured, and turned her head to gently press a kiss to the top of Liara's head. Liara glanced towards the memorial wall. The names stood out starkly against the metal backing, the blank slots less than they were even a few weeks ago. Kaiden Alenko. The names of the crew members who died at the crash. Navigator Pressley. Mordin Solus. Thane Krios._

_"Are you alright, Shepard?" Liara asked sincerely. She'd never been like this. In fact, Liara had seen her purposely look away from the memorial wall before. Skye was famous for ignoring what she was feeling, for the sake of everyone else. Liara knew there were times she refused to deal with anything at all, and when she absolutely had to._

_Shepard's voice was soft. It's usual resonance taking on a different timbre. She sounded younger than her years, and older than her years all at once."I…I couldn't stop thinking of them. Who we've lost because we were too quick or too slow. I know in most cases it couldn't of have been helped…but I don't know. Needed to come here I suppose. I never got to actually pay my respects."_

_She paused._

_"They gave so much, Liara. I hope what they gave is going to be worth it, in the end. But the odds are just…I don't even know what they are. Hell, I don't even want to know."_

_Liara tightened her hold. "You'll make their sacrifices worth it."_

_"I hope so." Her eyes were blue. A deep blue, like the Thessian seas or the extranet photos of Earth skies. Skye. She had received that name for her love of it, for her desire to go beyond it. Before that, she was Shepard and Shepard alone._

_"And the music?" The song seemed to be reaching it's end, the notes fading out. A new one began then, slow and…soulful, she supposed._

_"Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try…"_

_Shepard shrugged. "Haven't listened to The Beatles in a while. Always used to comfort me back on Earth. Maya used to love 'It's Been a Hard Days Night.' She'd sing it after a job, loud enough to make the birds fly away."_

_Mentions of Shepard's close childhood friend were fleeting, but they always caught Liara by surprise. The sting of her premature death always cut her deeply, in a way that made her hardly speak of her. When Skye did, it was moments like these. Where the emotions grabbed hold so quickly. One of the facts Liara remembered very clearly was that Maya's grave was behind the old warehouse where they used to live, marked by three stones._

_Liara reached out to gently touch Shepard's face, guide it toward her own._

_"Shepard. You can do this. We can all do this. These people, our friends died so that we could all…." She couldn't say it. She couldn't bring herself to make any more impassioned statements phrasing. She could, usually. She'd inherited at least one thing from Benezia. But now she needed Skye to understand. Have her understand everything._

_She brought their lips together quickly, cupping the back of Skye's neck, pulling her in deeper. She felt Skye respond in kind, wrapping her arms around Liara's waist, rubbing small circles against the fabric. She felt the hairs at the back of Shepard's neck, the gooseflesh that appeared whenever Liara's hand brushed the skin. The kiss was all-consuming, and passionate, tongues seeking dominance. But underneath was the love they shared, making Liara week in the knees and Shepard just pull her in closer._

_They broke apart reluctantly, Liara still resting her forehead against Shepard's. Their breaths intermingled, Liara could just make out the murmured 'I love you,' and gently pressed her lips against her lover's once more. The want and need to meld, to become one, was nearly overwhelming but the ever-present overload of work made Liara sigh and step back just a little._

_She looked at Skye again, and gently cupped her cheek._

_"You will make it. Goddess will it, we will have a home of our own, filled with all those little blue children who will be so proud that their Dad is Commander Shepard. We will have that peace."_

_Shepard's eyes were wide. "You want..?"_

_Liara took her hands, meeting Skye's eyes with her own. "Yes."_

_She had never meant anything more._

_The moment broke then, with a message from EDI stating through Shepard's omnitool that she had an urgent message waiting on her terminal. Wariness added to the sadness in her face, and she rubbed her eyes._

_"Better see what that's about." She pressed a brief kiss to Liara's cheek. "Get some sleep, love. We've got a big day tomorrow. Traynor just got some intel about some reactors going dark."_

_With that, the music vanished. The halls echoed with the sounds of Shepard's footsteps, and Liara was left with an ache somewhere deep inside. For Shepard, for the galaxy. For what it was doing to everyone's heart, everyone's resolve. The days of blushing and stammering as she attempted to converse with Shepard were over._

_As she stepped towards the mess hall, head not even close to clear, a sudden memory flashed. Lady Benezia lying prone on the ground. No where near the regal and wise Matriarch she was; indoctrinated against her will. Her eyes glazed as she drew her final breaths, Liara's own making the imagine in her memory blurred._

_"No light…they always said there would be a light."_

_With the air shifting, Liara felt the ground leave her, the stars surrounding her, and for a moment; an embrace. But manic eyes formed in front of her, snarling teeth. The hum of a red beam firing up. The stars seemed dangerous, blinding. The embrace was eons away, the beam coming closer and closer…and then she was gone._

_Everyone and everything was just...gone._

* * *

She awoke with a shriek in her ears, with the stars in her head. The light made her eyes burn, and she cried out a bit as pain returned in her arm,

_Broken._

But she had just been there, with her! She…her head began to spin. The Med Bay. She was in the Med Bay. Her body felt battered, alive but battered. But something felt..empty. As if someone had taken something vital from her very being.

Skye. She was there. She was waiting.

Without making a conscious decision, Liara shot up out of her bed and ran out the Med Bay's door. Her steps were sluggish, her vision hazy, but she didn't stop until she reached the wall. The mess hall was as silent as that night, not a soul was stirring. However, there was no figure with a bun, no music playing out of an omnitool. Only a name, engraved in the middle.

_Only a name._

Her knees began to buckle as rational thought began to return. They had escaped, they were safe. Did the Crucible work? No one could say for certain. Was Shepard…..No. No one one could say for certain. She would know if it was certain. She knew it with every bone in her body.

And she wasn't.

A gentle hand touched her shoulder then. She turned her head to the semi-welcome sight of Dr. Chakwas, looking as concerned as she looked stern.

"I have to say, Liara. You are the last person I would think of to try and escape my clutches." Chakwas chuckled then, seeming to remember something.

"I am…sorry, Doctor. I do not know what came over me." She muttered, eyes flickering from Chakwas to the name on the wall. Chakwas seemed to follow her gaze, and let out grieved sigh.

Liara hung her head. "I woke up…needing to know. If I dreamt it all."

Chakwas shook her head. "These days I wake up every day thinking like that. Come on, I need to check that arm of yours…and I have some news. Although I believe you already know."

As Chakwas helped her up, guiding her good arm over her shoulders, Liara felt puzzled. _Know….what?_ Something grabbed at her mind then. A gentle poke, a nudge. To remind. She felt something akin to a smile, a burst of affection, from someone in her mind who wasn't her. _Goddess._

"I do." Liara said in a shaky voice, tears beginning to fill up. She placed her hand on her stomach, wondering at the life that was growing there. Her daughter. _Skye's_ daughter.

"It was a decision we both made….just before. It might appear rash, but-"

"You don't need to explain to me, dear. Rationality isn't always the best way to go about things." Chakwas said. She slowly guided her back to the Med Bay, Liara cursing her weakened limbs. She finally made it back to her hospital bed, and pulled the sheets around herself. Liara sunk into them, the weight of everything without much warning falling on her shoulders.

_"Goddess, _I miss her." She whispered.

Chakwas took Liara's hand, gently rubbing it with her thumb.

"That little girl will still have a lot of love, I hope you know that. She will never be without it." Liara nodded, eyes unfocussed. She needed to cry. She needed to check her terminals. She needed to see if everything _was_ for nothing or not.

She needed to find _her._

"I'm not giving up on her." Liara finally said, eyes boring into Chakwas's.

Chakwas smiled slightly and let go of Liara's hand. She tucked the blanket up and around the sheets, and gestured for the asari's arm.

"I know." Chakwas said softly.

A pause as she started to unwrap Liara's arm.

"Why else would you have been smiling before you crashed from exhaustion and with a broken arm?" She said this jokingly, but her voice was still edged with grief.

"I….did?"

"Gave us all quite a scare, there."

"Skye told me to get more sleep, just a few months ago…perhaps I should have listened." Liara murmured, eyes fixed on the wound on her slightly swollen arm.

Chakwas sighed, as she began to rub medigel into into it.

"They _all_ should have listened to her."

Liara's skin tingled as it repaired itself. The swelling began to decrease, and she wiggled her fingers a bit and winced as the pain spiked again.

"Isn't that the truth.

**A/N: Some background on this fic: It started as a Dragon Age/Mass Effect crossover. Then this idea took over. Every chapter will be a different theme and character, but will all center on how the Normandy crew is trying to fix their ship and figure out how to deal with the mess the Reaper War left behind. With that being said...I'm not quite sure about this chapter. Romance isn't my forte, writing wise. But more about Skye Shepard in this chapter, so I suppose that's good.**

**:D**


End file.
